msd-core/docs/RELEASE-v1.50.0-canary.1.md

v1.50.0-canary.1 Release Notes

First canary cut for the 1.50.0 train. Published to npm under the canary dist-tag.

npx @opengsd/get-shit-done-redux@canary
# or pin exact:
npm install -g @opengsd/get-shit-done-redux@1.50.0-canary.1

Canary stream caveat. Canary builds come from the long-lived dev integration branch and may carry rough edges that the next (RC) and latest (stable) channels never see. Use canary when you want to exercise in-flight features early and report findings; do NOT pin production projects to it. See CANARY.md for the stream policy and rollback path.

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Headline: Vertical MVP / TDD / UAT planning track

The 1.50.0 train opens with a four-phase vertical slice that adds an end-to-end "MVP mode" to the GSD planning pipeline — from project kickoff, through phase planning, through execution, through verification. Issue #2826 is the umbrella PRD.

What's new

/gsd plan-phase --mvp — vertical-slice planning (#2867)

/gsd plan-phase learns a --mvp flag that flips the planner into vertical-slice mode. The planner reads **Mode:** mvp from a phase's ROADMAP entry, an explicit --mvp CLI override, or workflow.mvp_mode in .planning/config.json (precedence in that order, with the CLI flag winning). Under MVP mode the planner:

• Surfaces a "Walking Skeleton" template for the very first phase of a new project — a thin end-to-end vertical slice that proves the wiring before any horizontal layer is built
• Suppresses horizontal-layer language ("data layer first, then business logic, then UI") in favor of user-flow-driven decomposition
• Emits the user story as a header at the top of PLAN.md

New required-reading injection: references/planner-mvp-mode.md. New parser surface: roadmap.cjs extracts a mode field on every phase lookup.

/gsd mvp-phase <N> — guided user-story phase framing (#2874)

A new top-level command that walks the user through framing a phase as a vertical MVP slice before planning. Three structured prompts capture an "As a / I want to / So that" user story. If the story is too large, an interactive SPIDR (Spike / Path / Interface / Data / Rule) splitting flow surfaces a list of /gsd add-phase invocations to break the work apart. The command then:

• Mutates the ROADMAP entry to set **Mode:** mvp and replaces **Goal:** with the assembled user story
• Delegates to /gsd plan-phase --mvp <N> to produce the plan

Two new references: spidr-splitting.md, user-story-template.md.

Execute-phase MVP+TDD runtime gate (#2878)

When MVP_MODE and TDD_MODE are both true at execution time, execute-phase adds a per-task gate that requires a test(<phase>-<plan>): commit to exist before the corresponding feat(...) commit. The reference execute-mvp-tdd.md documents the contract; the executor agent (agents/gsd-executor.md) gains an MVP+TDD Gate section that explains when the gate trips, what evidence it expects, and how to escalate via the documented escape hatch.

Known canary-bake item. The current bash gate snippet uses some workflow variables that aren't fully wired (${PLAN_ID}, ${TASK_TDD}) and the documented --force-mvp-gate escape hatch is referenced in the user-facing error message but not yet implemented in the argument parser. These are tracked as canary-bake follow-ups; the gate itself is functional for the dominant code path.

Verify-work MVP-mode UAT framing (#2880)

Under MVP mode, verify-work flips the UAT script's framing so user-flow steps come before technical correctness checks — the inverse of the default order. The verifier agent gains a mvp_mode_verification section. New reference: verify-mvp-mode.md.

A user-story format guard at the top of extract_tests will halt verification if a phase claims **Mode:** mvp but its **Goal:** doesn't parse as As a … I want to … so that … — pointing the user at /gsd mvp-phase <N> to repair.

Discovery & progress surfaces (#2883)

The MVP slice closes out with read-side surfaces:

• /gsd new-project prompts up front for Vertical MVP vs Horizontal Layers mode and seeds the milestone accordingly
• /gsd-progress emits a "User-flow next up" panel for MVP-mode phases, surfacing user-visible task names ahead of internal scaffolding
• /gsd-stats adds an "MVP phases: N" summary line when the roadmap contains any
• /gsd-graphify visually differentiates MVP-mode phase nodes from horizontal-layer phases in the rendered graph

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Bonus fixes also in this canary

• /gsd-progress no longer cites stale CLAUDE.md project blocks as the source for the "Next Up" section (#2912) — explicit context-authority directive added to the report step.

(Other recent main-stream fixes — agent-skills CLI JSON wrap, audit-open ReferenceError, execute-phase branching, Hermes runtime — target the next stream and will arrive in the canary when they land in dev.)

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Install / upgrade

# Try the canary
npx @opengsd/get-shit-done-redux@canary

# Or pin exact
npm install -g @opengsd/get-shit-done-redux@1.50.0-canary.1

The installer's defensive purge will rewrite stale config blocks left by older GSD versions on first run. No manual cleanup needed.

Reporting issues

If something breaks on canary, file against the issue tracker with the bug template and mention 1.50.0-canary.1 so it gets routed back into the dev stream rather than the stable stream.

What ships next in this train

Pending dev-stream merges that should land before promotion to next:

• Resolve canary-bake items in the MVP+TDD gate (variable wiring + --force-mvp-gate parser)
• Sync recent main-stream fixes (#2918, #2919, #2921, #2917, #2920) into dev
• Ride a few canary cycles for real-user MVP/TDD/UAT feedback

When the dev stream stabilizes, the train promotes to main as v1.50.0-rc.1 (the next channel).